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ABOUT BLACK BEAR

Our MissionOur TeamOur TechnologyOur PartnersCareersFAQ’s

WHAT BLACK BEAR BELIEVES

Why?

Black Bear believes in infrastructure for a cleaner world. We view the waste tire problem and the threat of climate change as opportunities to make meaningful change.

How?

Using a circular economy model, we upcycle end-of-life-tires into high quality, safe, easy to use and sustainable Carbon Black products.

What?

Our long-term goal is to upcycle all waste tires and thus reduce oil use, with CO2 emission reductions equivalent to planting more than 1 billion trees.

OUR TEAM

  • Ad van Oorschot
    Sales and R&D Director
    Ad van Oorschot
    Ad van Oorschot

    After finishing his chemical education (HBO) he started working as a R&D chemist and applications laboratory group leader. Later in his career he also finished an executive MBA in strategic marketing/general management. Getting in contact with customers and the market he decided to give his career a commercial twist and since then he has been working at the edge of sales, marketing and technical service, including a position at Cabot as technical service manager. In these positions he also gained a lot of international carbon black experience. He has been working for over 35 years in ink & coating related industries.

  • Dion Wirokarso
    Process Engineer
    Dion Wirokarso
    Dion Wirokarso

    Dion graduated from the Hanzehogeschool in Groningen as a chemical engineer. Before his studies, he lived in Suriname for 19 years. Throughout his study, Dion was inspired by the quote: ‘’vertrouwen in eigen kunnen’’ (“confidence in your own ability”). Before working at Black Bear Carbon, he did his final internship at Ingenia BV. After graduating he was asked to prove his own abilities at Black Bear Carbon.

  • Evelien Dittrich
    HR
    Evelien Dittrich
    Evelien Dittrich

    Evelien started her career at FrieslandCampina, where she fulfilled various HR roles for over ten years. She had a regional responsibility in south east Asia for three years, where she was involved in the HR development for emerging markets. When coming back to the Netherlands Evelien became HR responsible for the Dutch Retail business. She combined this with an executive MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management. After finishing her EMBA in early 2019, Evelien was ready to take on a new challenge and made the move towards Black Bear Carbon, where started as Head of HR.

  • Floris Wyers
    Business Development
    Floris Wyers
    Floris Wyers

    Floris graduated from Delft University of Technology with a MSc degree in Applied Physics, majoring in Sustainable Energy Technology. The first 5 years of his career he was a process engineer at Fluor, after which he switched to a fine chemicals production facility in Rotterdam as a project manager. In 2017 Floris started an executive MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management. In 2018 he started at Black Bear Carbon, managing the operations of the plant in Nederweert. After finishing his MBA in early 2019, Floris made the move towards Business Development. Floris is passionate about sustainable energy and the circular economy.

  • Geert Glimmerveen
    Finance
    Geert Glimmerveen
    Geert Glimmerveen

    Geert started his career at McKinsey & Co after which he worked for various companies in executive positions (DAF Trucks, Academic Hospital Utrecht, Eneco Energy Company, Egeria Private Equity) mainly in Finance, Strategy and Operations. Within his last position he was MD for Van Gansewinkel Netherlands. Within Black Bear he is responsible for finance, logistics and quality control.

  • Hugo Liebrand
    Engineering Manager
    Hugo Liebrand
    Hugo Liebrand

    Hugo holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology. His thesis on oil-water separation formed the base of a startup at which he started his career. He spent the next ten years developing new technologies in water treatment and managing projects in the oil & gas industry. After spending 3 years in the USA, where he worked for a 3D-printer manufacturer, he returned to the Netherlands where he joined Black Bear Carbon in 2019. Within Black Bear, Hugo is responsible for the engineering projects.

  • Ide Engelsma
    Process Engineer
    Ide Engelsma
    Ide Engelsma

    Ide has a MSc in Chemical Engineering at the University of Technology in Enschede. Before starting at Black Bear Carbon, Ide worked at several industry-leading service providers as an R&D engineer, project engineer, and project manager. During these positions he worked on developing waste to energy and waste to oil projects, from which his enthusiasm for Black Bear originated. The foundation for safety practices and proper engineering structures was set when Ide started a small engineering department at the Shell refinery in the Rotterdam area where he worked for 4 years as an engineering manager.

  • Jan Jonkman
    Commercial
    Jan Jonkman
    Jan Jonkman

    Jan started his own companies in China in 1991, both international technical businesses in the waste management sector that continue to operate successfully. Jan, together with Ronald, initiated a process of reusing waste tires in a meaningful way in 2010. Jan manages Black Bear’s commercial relationships, its partnerships with other industry players, and relations with governments.

  • Jelle Hoekstra
    Controller
    Jelle Hoekstra
    Jelle Hoekstra

    More coming soon..

  • Jeroen Hofstra
    Project Manager
    Jeroen Hofstra
    Jeroen Hofstra

    Jeroen graduated from the Delft University of Technology with a MSc degree in Construction Management and Engineering. In 2013 he started his career as a risk manager at the infrastructure department of Fluor. After two years he moved to Vietnam to manage a start-up for the development of a chain of boutique hotels. Since January 2018 he is responsible for project controls, project management and financial matters of current and future projects at Black Bear. When not working, Jeroen enjoys football every week and playing his guitar so now and then.

  • Joost Raimond
    Construction
    Joost Raimond
    Joost Raimond

    Joost holds a B.SC. in Mechanical Engineering from the Hogeschool Groningen and worked for Fluor, a Fortune 500 company that delivers engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and project management to clients around the world. In 2003, Joost founded Worx Project Management & Consultancy and operates on projects across commercial and industrial environments. Within Black Bear, Joost is responsible for integrating the activities of engineering, procurement and construction functions as well as managing all (sub) contractor activities.

  • Marc Tabak
    Work Planner & CAD Engineering
    Marc Tabak
    Marc Tabak

    Marc has been involved in Black Bear since June 2016 and performs CAD works for all projects. As an all-round Mechanical engineer Marc has over 25 years of experience realizing international projects in the Environmental Industry. Additionally to CAD works, he supports the engineering projects as work planner, to smoothen logistics, supply and execution performance. His passion for mountains leads him as often as possible to the Alps. Riding bicycles or getting to a summit are always great and beautiful challenges.

  • Maria van den Sanden
    Office Support
    Maria van den Sanden
    Maria van den Sanden

    Maria is part of the Black Bear family since 2017. Before joining Black Bear she worked in similar roles for a municipality, a bank and technical companies. At present, she is a devoted support for our team on administrative matters, in which her accuracy, patience and eagerness to deliver high quality work are of major importance. Also she is taking care of logistic matters regarding the carbon black samples of our clients. In her spare time she loves gardening and reading books in Dutch, Spanish or English.

  • Michiel Vromans
    Maintenance engineer
    Michiel Vromans
    Michiel Vromans

    Michiel holds a BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology and a MSc degree in Sustainable Energy from the Danish University of Technology, in which he focused on thermal energy systems. He has worked as production engineer at high-tech manufacturer ASML and as project engineer at district heating company Ennatuurlijk. In Black Bear he is part of the engineering team and responsible for operations and maintenance. He joined Black Bear in 2019 to be part of a sustainable company with high impact potential and to join an inspiring, entrepreneurial team.

  • Sander Beckers
    Electrical and Automation
    Sander Beckers
    Sander Beckers

    Sander holds a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven. After his study Sander worked in the field of recycling by designing and commissioning control systems for waste recycling plants all over the world. In his second job Sander gained broader skills in industrial automation in the fields of industry like chemical, food and machine control doing several projects in the Netherlands. Within Black Bear Sander is responsible for electrical and automation systems including software and SCADA. To be able to use his skills and be able to contribute to turn an environmental problem into usable product brought Sander to Black Bear.

  • Silvio Ghyoot
    CEO
    Silvio Ghyoot
    Silvio Ghyoot

    More coming soon..

  • Troy Huijskens
    Business Development manager
    Troy Huijskens
    Troy Huijskens

    Troy graduated from Maastricht University with MSc degrees in Human Decision Science and International Business. Before joining Black Bear Carbon, Troy worked 3.5 years for KPMG as a strategy consultant, where he mainly focused on M&A related assignments. Within Black Bear, Troy is responsible for business development and the organizational streamlining process of the Black Bear organization. Furthermore, Troy is passionate about soccer, skiing and traveling.

  • Victor Vreeken
    CTO
    Victor Vreeken
    Victor Vreeken

    More coming soon..

OUR SUPERVISORY BOARD

  • Koos Breen
    Chairman
    Koos Breen
    Koos Breen (Chair)

    Koos was educated as an engineer at TU Delft and carries a bachelor’s degree from Erasmus school of economics. He worked 24 years for Philips in Consumer Electronics , mainly in Asia. In 1997, he followed the Executive Program at Wharton. In 1998 Koos joined the management of van Leeuwen Buizen where he became CEO in 2000. In 2007 he moved to the firm’s BoD. Later on, he expanded his impact by becoming part of the board at Ahrend, Koninklijke Smilde, Teijin Aramid, and Black Bear.

  • George Rietbergen
    Member
    George Rietbergen
    George Rietbergen

    George carries an academic background in the field of Business Administration with degrees from Leiden University, Radboud University and Harvard Business School. He spent almost a decade fulfilling various positions at KLM after which he moved to Goodyear. Currently, George is a board member at Nokian Tyres and CEO at RCCS Waardetransport. In 2017 he became partner at 5square Committed Capital, one of Black Bear’s investors.

  • Jos Schneiders
    Member
    Jos Schneiders
    Jos Schneiders

    Jos is a mechanical engineer from TU Eindhoven. He has spent 35 years at DSM in various executive and presidential positions. Since 2008 he is Chairman at Limburg Ventures and in 2011 he also started as Chairman at the Board of Limburg Economic Development. He plays a similar role at the educational institution Arcus. Since 2014 he is a member of the Supervisory Board of Chemelot Ventures, one of Black Bear’s investors.

  • Rob van der Meij
    Member
    Rob van der Meij
    Rob van der Meij

    Rob is a chemical engineer from TU Delft and has worked both in the corporate, strategy consulting and start-up world of chemicals, process and water technology. Rob has held management positions at Akzo and Shell. He was also founder and CEO of KiOR. Rob completed the New Board Program at Neyenrode Business University. At this moment Rob is Senior Investment Manager at Capricorn, one of Black Bear’s investors.

  • Bert Tjeenk Willink
    Member
    Bert Tjeenk Willink
    Bert Tjeenk Willink

    Bert is a trained medical doctor with 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He fulfilled many executive roles at Boehringer Ingelheim. His latest executive position was interim CEO at STADA Arzneimittel. Since 2012 he is active in supervisory boards for start-ups, mostly in the pharma industry, Private Equity and Venture Capital funds.

OUR TECHNOLOGY

Steel Removal

Step 1 - Pre-production.

Before reaching the Black Bear facility, the steel is removed from the tires. It will also be recycled, thereby contributing to the circular economy solution.

Carbonisation

Step 2. Carbonisation

Tire rubber is heated in the absence of oxygen under controlled conditions. The rubber is broken down into much smaller molecules, leaving behind pyrolysis gas, oil and a solid carbonaceous char. This char is valuable because it contains all of the high value “furnace” Carbon Blacks that were originally used to manufacture the new tires.

De-agglomeration

Step 3. De-agglomeration

De-agglomeration is the process of breaking down the carbonaceous char material into smaller particles (or aggregates). The process controls the particle size distribution (PSD) of the final product. PSD is a key product performance property as it relates to Carbon Black’s reinforcing effect in rubber compounds.

Pelletising

Step 4. Pelletising

Pelletising solves the handling and storage problems associated with fluffy Carbon Black powder by effectively increasing its bulk density by three to four times. During this step, the fluffy Carbon Black is combined with controlled amounts of water and binding agents in a pelletiser mixer, removing large volumes of air.

Drying

Step 5. Drying

Water from the pelletising step is then evaporated under controlled conditions. A very small amount of binding agent remains behind, ensuring that the dried pellets hold together with sufficient strength to withstand packaging and transportation. The pellets are also soft enough to be easily broken down to their original primary particle size.

Finished Product

Step 6. Finished Product

The end product, our Carbon Black, reaches its final destination. Providing a unique balance of mechanical and dynamic reinforcing characteristics with extremely low PAH levels, our Carbon Blacks function as sustainable, one-to-one replacements of many ASTM furnace Carbon Blacks in tires, inks, coatings and technical rubber goods.

OUR PARTNERS

Clean Future Synergy
Chemelot Ventures
Circle Economy
“A social enterprise, organised as a cooperative, Circle Economy accelerates the transition to circularity through on the ground, action focused, development of practical and scalable solutions.”

Visit their website

Eco-innovation - European Commission
“The eco-innovation initiative bridges the gap between research and the market. It helps good ideas for innovative products, services and processes that protect the environment become fully-fledged commercial prospects, ready for use by business and industry. In doing so the initiative not only helps the EU meet its environmental objectives but also boosts economic growth”.

Visit their website

OPZuid
“The Operational Programme South Netherlands 2014-2020 (OPZuid) is a European funding program for the provinces of Zeeland, Limburg and North Brabant. Spearheads are promoting innovation and the transition to a low carbon economy. The program is focused on innovative SMEs and strengthening the cooperation between industry, universities and governments”.

Visit their website

EFRO
Visit their website
ClimateKIC
RVO
Visit their website
Particon
Stichting Doen
Visit their website

CAREERS

Thank you for your interest in Black Bear!
We’re always looking for passionate people to join our team.

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    FAQs

    General

    What does Black Bear do?
    What is Carbon Black and how is it traditionally produced?
    How do you get resources to make Carbon Black?
    What is different in your process of making Carbon Black
    What does Black Bear do?

    Black Bear brings the circular economy to tires. We enable the production of valuable raw materials (Carbon Black) from end-of-life tires for re-use in tires, technical rubber products, plastics, paint and ink. We provide technology, product development and marketing and sales expertise of our Carbon Black products. While we are primarily focussed on the production of high quality Carbon Black, the process also yields an important bi-product – green energy. This is in the form of high calorific gas and oil, which can be converted to heat, electricity or steam and provides an additional income stream within the business model. We partner with tire collectors and offer our high quality products as raw materials to the Industry.

    What is Carbon Black and how is it traditionally produced?

    Carbon Black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured by the controlled vapour-phase pyrolysis and partial combustion of hydrocarbons. Occurring as a fine black powder, Carbon Black is used to provide structure and durability in tires and jet-black coloration in inks, plastics and rubber. Several processes have been used to produce Carbon Black, including the oil-furnace, impingement (channel), lampblack, thermal (decomposition of natural gas) and acetylene (decomposition) processes — in addition to Black Bear’s proven carbonization pyrolysis method.  Carbon Black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured by the controlled vapour-phase pyrolysis and partial combustion of hydrocarbons. Occurring as a fine black powder, Carbon Black is used to provide structure and durability in tires and jet-black coloration in inks, plastics and rubber. Several processes have been used to produce Carbon Black, including the oil-furnace, impingement (channel), lampblack, thermal (decomposition of natural gas) and acetylene (decomposition) processes — in addition to Black Bear’s proven carbonization pyrolysis method.  Carbon Blacks are commonly referred to by the process or the source material from which they are made, e.g. furnace black, lamp black, thermal black, acetylene black and channel black. The different grades from the various processes have certain unique characteristics, but it is now possible to produce reasonable approximations of most of these grades using the oil-furnace process, by which more than 95% of the total output of Carbon Black is produced.

    How do you get resources to make Carbon Black?

    The Black Bear process uses end-of-life tires to produce carbon black. Each year over one billion tires are removed from vehicles, constituting around 13.5 million tons of solid waste. As tires contain around 25% carbon black. This means that this waste-stream contains approximately 3.4 million tons of carbon black. Through the eyes of BlackBear, a mountain of tires is like a mountain of gold!Therefore we took up the challenge of investigating how to extract the carbon black in a way that is both profitable and friendly to our environment – and perhaps most importantly from a commercial perspective in a way that restores the carbon black to a quality level at least as good as the original product.So Black Bear partners with established tire collectors who can use the Black Bear technology to turn this vast waste stream into a valuable raw material. Before the tires enter the Black Bear process, the steel will be removed and recycled, and the rubber will be converted into granulate.

    What is different in your process of making Carbon Black

    Traditional furnace or ‘virgin’ carbon black is produced from fossil fuels, by partially burning crude oil under controlled conditions. Depending on the grade it takes between 1.8 and 2.5 litres of fossil fuels to produce 1 kg of carbon black. The standard way of producing carbon black is very polluting. Furnace carbon black manufacturers emit around 38 million tons of CO₂ per year. The ±7.2 million tons of carbon black consumed by the tire industry every year creates an additional environmental issue because after use these tires are mostly burned or landfilled, polluting the environment and wasting the carbon black. In contrast, the Black Bear process uses end-of-life tires as feedstock to produces consistent, high quality carbon blacks. This circular economy approach not only massively reduces CO₂ emissions but also helps solve an important waste management problem. Interestingly, the Black Bear process produces more energy than it consumes, thereby having a beneficial effect on the environment.

    Carbon Black (product)

    Can your Carbon Black achieve the same quality standards as regular Carbon Black
    Does your Carbon Black have a lower Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content?
    How can I proceed if I am interested in testing your Carbon Black?
    Can you guarantee a regular supply?
    What are the benefits of purchasing greener Carbon Black?
    How is Black Bear’s recovered Carbon Black different from traditional Carbon Black?
    Can your Carbon Black achieve the same quality standards as regular Carbon Black

    Yes, with Black Bear’s technology it has become possible to recover high quality carbon blacks that are equal (and in some cases better) than virgin carbon blacks in terms of technical performance. Please see our product pages under ‘Carbon Black users’ for more details or contact us directly!

    Does your Carbon Black have a lower Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content?

    Yes, our process effectively ‘cleans’ furnace carbon blacks to a PAH content of <5ppm. This means our products are extremely clean and very suitable for food- and human contact applications. We are proud to produce the world’s first ‘green and clean’ carbon blacks!

    How can I proceed if I am interested in testing your Carbon Black?

    You can contact us directly via sales@blackbearcarbon.com. Our team is happy to assist you further.

    Can you guarantee a regular supply?

    Yes, Black Bear’s first production line produces a stable annual output of 5000 ton/year, allowing us to continuously serve customers across market segments. Considering over 1.5B tires come to the end of their life every year, and we currently process ‘only’ 1-2M of them there is no shortage of supply in the near future! Also, Black Bear is in well progressed conversations with potential partners across the world to add additional production capacity.

    What are the benefits of purchasing greener Carbon Black?

    Using a more sustainable, ‘greener’ carbon black highly improves the environmental footprint of your products, as well as lowering the PAH content – making it better suitable for food- and human contact applications. Currently, carbon blacks are created by burning oil and/or gas which obviously is a highly polluting process that puts great pressure on the environment and our natural resources. Typically, replacing virgin carbon black with green carbon black from Black Bear saves 5-7 ton CO2 for each ton of substituted material.

    Also, with Black Bear’s technology, it has become possible to recover high quality carbon blacks that are equal (and in some cases better) than virgin carbon blacks in terms of technical performance.

    How is Black Bear’s recovered Carbon Black different from traditional Carbon Black?

    Technology Roll Out

    Are you planning on rolling out to every country of the world?
    I am not a tire recycler, can I become a Black Bear partner?
    How much time does it takes to install a manufacturing plant?
    Are you planning on rolling out to every country of the world?

    Yes, waste tires and the associated environmental problems are in every country of the world. We are very excited to resolve this problem with our Circular Economy approach. We prefer to work with local partners and governments in order to maximize our positive environmental impact.

    I am not a tire recycler, can I become a Black Bear partner?

    Absolutely. We are looking for partners that can provide us with feedstock (end-of-life) tires, locations, permits and financing. In many cases we also partner with local governments. The best way to get in touch with us is to go to our form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

    How much time does it takes to install a manufacturing plant?

    On average the construction of a Black Bear line takes around 6 months assuming a timely access to permits and long lead items from vendors. The design concept is modular and has a nameplate output capacity of around 5 kton of carbon black a year. Black Bear and its contracted engineers will arrange all of the required engineering aspects with detailed consideration into all site-specific conditions and requirements. We will work closely with the tire collector/investor(s) and provide all information required to the authorities, for example, for permitting, to expedite the process.

    Copyright – Black Bear Carbon B.V.